What the pundits & media are saying about us

[Sandros Shiny Head]

Exactly.

Jamie Redknapp on SSN just now was asked if we could win the title and he was absolutely full of praise for us, he said he saw no reason why not, that he thought we could go close and that although people were talking about Mourinho, Conte and Guardiola that Pochettino is as good as any of them.

Although all that'll be largely ignored because it goes against SC's idiotic 'Jamie is a ****' narrative.

Being favourable towards spurs once on SSN doesn't make him not a ****

 

[Sweech]

Frankly I think our squad need some depth in CM and attack. Mason and Caroll just cannot play Dembele position and its like fitting a square peg in a round hole. We should rotate the players but we need a quality bench. Right now it is still not convincing given Janssen only had one season of dutch top flight and Njie had a decent season with Lyon two season ago while injured last yr as back up. Even GKN had only one yr of top flight in Ligue 1...... and he wasn't Marseilles best player.

The only proven quality was Wanyama who had 3 season of top flight under his belt.... so if I am a pundit, I will not be convince if spurs can go far in UCL or sustain a challenge for the title. No doubt our starting eleven is one of the strongest in Europe but I cant say about the bench esp for CM position. Just look at the profile of players that Dortmund and Athletico are buying and compared to ours...... so I think our potential is limited due to the bench or should I say limited funds.

I totally agree that we clearly needed some additions, mostly at striker and DM which we addressed pretty quickly.

Also, I find the whole "Spurs will be poor because of CL" a major red herring. We're a European club. We're used to this 2 games a week schedule and we're used to the rotation of the squad, which actually wasn't all that heavy of a rotation to be honest, aside from Dortmund. Which is my point, we rotated so heavily and weakened our squad so much, especially in that first game that I think people assume that's what we'd done the whole competition because that's the only game they watched. Except we didn't, in the group stages we'd rotate fullbacks and then 2 or 3 other spots, which is average and what every other club does.

Not only that, but I don't think we're naive/brash enough to throw the Premier League in order to better compete in a competition which we won't win. As soon as we hit an injury crisis or poor form we'll likely do whatever it takes to ensure our PL form and results stay intact and sacrifice the CL ones.

Also, in regards to depth at CM. I was just looking at our other PL competitors...it's not great for most of them to be totally honest.

 

[Sweech]

Although a few of the pundits (i.e., Neville) are pretty thoughtful, most of them are swayed, consciously or unconsciously, by the team loyalties, and the absurd barrage of press about the abiding greatness of the Sky-5, and the awesome qualities of (self-proclaimed) manager-gods, "born winners", or whatever-the-hell they get sold as...

Look how accurate the pundits were last year...

They're also super biased based on who they believe has won the transfer window in a vacuum. If you notice a lot of pundits will rank their predictions and it will exactly mirror who has made the most high profile additions, even though year after year we see the winners aren't often the transfer window winners. In fact often they make only 1 or 2 key additions and come off the back of some stability.

The most glaring one right now is the praise Manchester City are getting. I'm consistently hearing praise for Guardiola and their signings. Guardiola is a fair point...their signings? No. Gundogan is the only difference maker there in a position of need for them. All the others play in the same position, a position which they already had plenty of options and talented producers at in the first place. The signings don't actually improve on what was there in the first place, which is a very talented attacking nucleus.

 

[Tucker]

They're also super biased based on who they believe has won the transfer window in a vacuum. If you notice a lot of pundits will rank their predictions and it will exactly mirror who has made the most high profile additions, even though year after year we see the winners aren't often the transfer window winners. In fact often they make only 1 or 2 key additions and come off the back of some stability.

The most glaring one right now is the praise Manchester City are getting. I'm consistently hearing praise for Guardiola and their signings. Guardiola is a fair point...their signings? No. Gundogan is the only difference maker there in a position of need for them. All the others play in the same position, a position which they already had plenty of options and talented producers at in the first place. The signings don't actually improve on what was there in the first place, which is a very talented attacking nucleus.

Exactly. It's plain to see the defence is the main problem at City.

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

Being favourable towards spurs once on SSN doesn't make him not a ****

Your right. And there's literally nothing that would convince you otherwise. He's a ****. They are ALL ****s. Likewise saying something negative doesn't make a pundit a **** on here. No wait.....erm.....yes, that is exactly how it works.......

Basically, say something negative = Pundit is a ****. Say something positive = Pundit is a ****.

 

[Sweech]

Exactly. It's plain to see the defence is the main problem at City.

Which I think Guardiola will help fix himself, but claiming the signing as some work of brilliance is false. They're clearly punts for the future of what is currently an aging squad. Except Nolito, which is still a transfer that doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Spurslove]

We're not finishing top 4 ffs. Christ almighty people. Only chance we have of that is if Modric or Bale come back or anpther world class player comes along

We got extremely lucky last year where the sky 4 all had down years and we were a fighting chance from a fighting chance at the title until we managed to fuck that up and finish 3rd in A 2 horse title race(who says spursy is dead?!) That chance wont happen 2 years in a row. City, Chelsea and United will be MUCH better this year. Arsenal could fuck up for 30+ games but they'll still finish above us because we havent proven we can string along a 38 game season under Poch. The top 4 will be back to normal.

We have a fantastic opportunity to distrupt it but look at this transfer window. Are we taking that opportunity? No. Will we? No. Can we? Well, no. We have a stadium to build.

You don't appear to have any faith in our ability to do exactly what we did last season and perhaps a little better, which is a great shame.

I think we have already proved to everyone that you don't have to splash upwards of £50 million on players with the latest big names from Football Manager, you just need to find the right ones from the lower leagues and from lesser foreign leagues.

We have one of the shrewdest young management teams in the country and we've long since sussed the fact that to bring in players, they must be of the right character as well as being good enough. Leave it to Poch and his backroom gang. I think they know very well (and better than any of us ) how to go about this, and build something very special here.

We are still very much a work in progress.

 

[Khilari]

Your right. And there's literally nothing that would convince you otherwise. He's a ****. They are ALL ****s. Likewise saying something negative doesn't make a pundit a **** on here. No wait.....erm.....yes, that is exactly how it works.......

Basically, say something negative = Pundit is a ****. Say something positive = Pundit is a ****.

I find the main problem with Jaime Redknapp as a pundit is that, like Michael Owen, Alan Shearer and Paul Merson, they really don't know what they're talking about. Redknapp and Merson in particular don't come across as the sharpest tools in the box.

I find Gary Neville, Jason Roberts, Martin Keown (I know!), Mark Chapman (MOTD2) and even Jenas to actually sound like they've put some thought into this.

Carragher isn't terrible, nor is he particularly good however.

 

[voxy28]

You don't appear to have any faith in our ability to do exactly what we did last season and perhaps a little better, which is a great shame.

I think we have already proved to everyone that you don't have to splash upwards of £50 million on players with the latest big names from Football Manager, you just need to find the right ones from the lower leagues and from lesser foreign leagues.

We have one of the shrewdest young management teams in the country and we've long since sussed the fact that to bring in players, they must be of the right character as well as being good enough. Leave it to Poch and his backroom gang. I think they know very well (and better than any of us ) how to go about this, and build something very special here.

We are still very much a work in progress.

I think it's hit and miss so far with Stambouli, Fazio and Njie being poorly acquire while Dier, Alli, Toby and Wimmer are top buy. I always doubted Njie acquisition.... Now we need to take a hit after a yr. Mitchell must be under lots of pressure with his black box.

 

[Khilari]

You don't appear to have any faith in our ability to do exactly what we did last season and perhaps a little better, which is a great shame.

I think we have already proved to everyone that you don't have to splash upwards of £50 million on players with the latest big names from Football Manager, you just need to find the right ones from the lower leagues and from lesser foreign leagues.

We have one of the shrewdest young management teams in the country and we've long since sussed the fact that to bring in players, they must be of the right character as well as being good enough. Leave it to Poch and his backroom gang. I think they know very well (and better than any of us ) how to go about this, and build something very special here.

We are still very much a work in progress.

You're right, I think.

Clubs can do it in a few ways - employ a really good coach who, over time will improve the club. But you have to wait, give him the time, some money and believe in him. I think we've tried with our managers and given them reasonable periods to improve. Jol had a good run but I think he was tactically limited, Redknapp talked himself out of the job going forward and I really think we tried with AVB although we may have misled him into the calibre of signing he was going to get and how much we were willing to spend. Saying that, we spunked the Bale money over him but that failed to a degree.

Clubs like Man City, Chelsea and Man Utd however have the alternative option of employing a respected coach with a great CV and throw money at it. It's their job then to gel the squad and get them playing. The advantage is success can potentially be relatively instant, but on the other hand could fail.

You have to say that not winning the title for any of these three clubs would be counted as failure, given the money they're spending.

I won't lie - it's so tempting to just want the victories, the cups and titles that many of us would choose the Sugar Daddy route if we could. But, we can't and there's something much more special about building a squad to do it, like we so nearly did last season and like Leicester managed.

Leicester's title will, IMO be so much more special than any of the titles won by the big spenders.

 

[mark87]

Merson thinks we'll finish 6th.

http://www.skysports.com/football/n...redicts-final-premier-league-table-for-201617

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

We are still very much a work in progress.

Exactly why it makes sense to be cautious when talking about likely league position this season. Top 4 again would be an incredibly great achievement, and not something we should take for granted.

 

[Grey Fox]

Merson thinks we'll finish 6th.

http://www.skysports.com/football/n...redicts-final-premier-league-table-for-201617

Merson has an IQ of 4

 

[longtimespur]

Merson has an IQ of 4

That high.........wow

 

[Xeeleeyid]

I hate hearing and reading this
How shit they were last year and how it won't happen again.

It's a major discredit to other teams.

Maybe they appeared shit not because they suddenly sold of their best players or didn't perform (Chelsea excluded) but because at least 10 clubs other than the usual suspects are really really good now and aren't push overs
Long gone are days when the usual 4 can just waltz around and guarantee points against every other club not in that top 4 bracket. And just fear dropping points in the big hyped sky supposed title clash games

If youre gonna play away to ourselves, West ham, Liverpool, Leicester, Everton, Southampton, Watford, Stoke, palace then you gotta be playing at the top of your game now or you'll likely get done

It's not that they won't drop points it's that they will normally drop less points than other team's. They will generally finish in the top 4 or 5 and have to be poorly managed in order for that not to happen as in normal terms they have better squads. Last season we had one first team striker and the youngest average age in the division. We were lucky despite being vastly improved, that despite their eye watering squads both Man City and Chelsea under performed and that Liverpool and Man U have largely wasted their superior resources on average tat over the last few seasons.

I think it's realistic to say that with Conte, Pep and Jose at Chelsea, City and Utd and Klopp at Pool that it might be this season or next we are again fighting for 5th and hoping to.take advantage of a slip to get 4th

 

[davidmatzdorf]

I think it's hit and miss so far with Stambouli, Fazio and Njie being poorly acquire while Dier, Alli, Toby and Wimmer are top buy. I always doubted Njie acquisition.... Now we need to take a hit after a yr. Mitchell must be under lots of pressure with his black box.

Dier (31/7/14), Fazio (27/8/14) and Stambouli (1/9/14) were signed before Paul Mitchell arrived at Tottenham (Nov 2014).

 

[hughy]

Merson has an IQ of 4

It wouldn't surprise me if Liverpool (5) finish in the top four and Tottenham (6) won't be far off either because they already have a team while everybody else has had to buy a team.

The fact this reads like a 5-year-old has written it says it all.

 

[commodoreLUNGE]

Sam Wallace isn't a pundit, but he is a recognised sports journalist and he has us down to finish 2nd behind City.

 

[shoggy33]

I hate hearing and reading this
How shit they were last year and how it won't happen again.

It's a major discredit to other teams.

Maybe they appeared shit not because they suddenly sold of their best players or didn't perform (Chelsea excluded) but because at least 10 clubs other than the usual suspects are really really good now and aren't push overs
Long gone are days when the usual 4 can just waltz around and guarantee points against every other club not in that top 4 bracket. And just fear dropping points in the big hyped sky supposed title clash games

If youre gonna play away to ourselves, West ham, Liverpool, Leicester, Everton, Southampton, Watford, Stoke, palace then you gotta be playing at the top of your game now or you'll likely get done

Spot on. I don't buy this 'everyone else was shite' thing from last year, the general standard of teams in this league now means that an off day will see you dropping points, and teams can longer just coast by on the fact they have better individuals. Chelsea aside I don't think anyone under performed that greatly, I just think ourselves and Leicester were better. Also, everyone is just assuming that these teams with shiny new managers and players will suddenly be brilliant. As we've seen time and and time again expensive foreign signings don't always work out in this league, needing time to adapt which they rarely get at teams like City/Chelsea, and new managers often take time to settle in. I would anticipate the big teams will certainly improve, but they are not suddenly going to be invincible. We have continuity and a team of players who know exactly how to play together, and that shouldn't be underestimated.

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

Spot on. I don't buy this 'everyone else was shite' thing from last year, the general standard of teams in this league now means that an off day will see you dropping points, and teams can longer just coast by on the fact they have better individuals. Chelsea aside I don't think anyone under performed that greatly, I just think ourselves and Leicester were better. Also, everyone is just assuming that these teams with shiny new managers and players will suddenly be brilliant. As we've seen time and and time again expensive foreign signings don't always work out in this league, needing time to adapt which they rarely get at teams like City/Chelsea, and new managers often take time to settle in. I would anticipate the big teams will certainly improve, but they are not suddenly going to be invincible. We have continuity and a team of players who know exactly how to play together, and that shouldn't be underestimated.

The flaw IMO is when fans assume that no improvement will be generated by any of the changes in all the big teams.
If we look at incoming managers and players for City, United, Chelsea, and Liverpool, changes will drastically pay off for at the very least one of those clubs. We are not up against positive effects from change in all those clubs, but we will have to combat great improvements compared to last season from some of all the changes in teams around us.